by KD Jones
A few seconds later Commander TylOR’s face came on the viewing screen. “Did you have something for me, Leader LarIS?”
He looked at Commander TylOR. “Yes. I wanted to let you know that your brother has decided to join the fight.”
“What in Kitana!”
*****
The Morin leader glared at the viewing screen. “Which wormhole, Lieutenant?”
“We do not know, sir.”
That was unacceptable. He pulled his arm back and knocked the male down with a fist to the jaw. He looked at the other lieutenants who all paled. “Find out which one. We have gone undetected but they will know we are here soon.”
“But, sir, we have three ships to the two Katieran transports patrolling the area. They are no match for us.”
“Do you think they would not call for reinforcements? We would be no match for the full fleet the Katierans have.” It killed him to admit that, but it was the truth. His people were down to the three transport ships that they have. That was it. His people were doomed if they didn't find females or even males that they can manipulate medically to help them repopulate.
It was all their fault. The Katierans, the Kiljorns, and the Colonists. His people would not be dying out if it weren’t for them. He would destroy them if it were the last thing he ever did.
“Sir, there is a ship coming through the center wormhole.”
The Leader gave an evil grin. “I have you now.”
*****
“Sir, the transport is arriving through the wormhole.”
Kitana! “Why didn’t anyone send a message to the incoming transport telling them to hold.” LarIS was furious.
“They were out of communications range. It happens when a transport is close to the wormhole. There is an electrical current that interferes with all transmissions,” one of his lieutenants responded.
“Sir, we’ve picked up three Morin transports heading directly toward the wormhole!” one of the lieutenants yelled.
“Get our males to their warships now!”
*****
“Did you want another piece of cake?” SandELa asked Lola.
Lola shook her head. “No I am full. Thank you for inviting us here today. It helped to take my mind off what’s happening.” Lizzie translated for her.
“You are most welcome. We will have to do this….” She was interrupted when Kat yelled out.
“Oh God!” Kat bent down holding her stomach.
All the women turned her way. SandELa rushed to her side. Cassie and Jaxon were right next to her each holding one of Cassie’s twin girls.
“What is Kat?” SandELa asked with concern.
“I’m going into labor.”
“Aw crap,” Jaxon exclaimed. She hit her Comm link. “This is Captain Malone…yes Prima Captain Jaxon…whatever. We need Medic SydEL informed to meet us at the Medic Wing. His mate is going into labor.” She ended the communications and looked worriedly at Kat. “Can you walk?”
“Yeah.” She let SandELa and AriELa help her up off the sofa.
Lola wanted to help but she didn’t know what to do. Then she let out an umph when Jaxon dumped the little blond-haired girl into her arms. Cassie gave her other daughter to Lizzie to hold. Then she and Lizzie followed behind as they helped Kat go down the hallway to the elevators.
Lola loved children. That’s why she took a teaching position with the hearing and sight impaired. She wanted to be around them, help them. One of her worries was that she would never get a chance to have one of her own.
As she held the sweet little girl with dimples, she couldn’t imagine not having one. Especially one with red hair like LarIS. Their children would be gorgeous. She wanted that more than anything. The little girl got wiggling so she hummed a tune, one she remembered hearing as a child before she lost her hearing. The little girl liked it and laid her head down on Lola’s shoulder. Not long after the babe was out.
She looked over at her friend, Lizzie, who was bouncing with the other little girl and struggling to get her to calm down. She motioned for them to switch. As soon as she started humming to the little red-haired girl, she fell asleep on Lola’s shoulder too. She thought about LarIS and said another silent prayer for him.
*****
Warriors scrambled to their warships. LarIS yelled out orders, “Get me AshOR online!”
“Yes, sir!”
“Commander AshOR online, sir!”
“Commander, we need to get a transport between the Morins and Katieran transport from Earth!”
“I’m on it, sir!”
There were three Morin transports and they were surrounded by three Katieran, one Kiljorn, and one Colonial transport. Clearly they were outnumbered but to put the enemy in a corner like this would cause them to act aggressively. Especially since they were in direct line of fire with the transport carrying Earth females. They were going to need a distraction somehow.
Chapter Eighteen
Lola sat in the waiting room of the Medic Wing. She and Lizzie had handed over Cassie’s little girls to their father, Prime Leader RendEL. Cassie and SandELa were with Kat helping her with her breathing. Kat’s mate, Prime Medic SydEL, was kicked out of the birthing room because he kept trying to fight with the medics every time Kat screamed in pain.
The waiting room was packed full of people. Prime ConEL, his son TorEL, and Lt. Daniels were there. Prima AriELa and her mate, TarAK, were sitting opposite her and Lizzie. The Kiljorn Prima, Lindsey, was there with her father and little sister. Even Dr. Rose came by to see if anyone needed anything and stayed a while to talk to everyone. It was a full house of people all there awaiting the arrival of the first mixed species child ever born.
Lola knew that it would take a while. Normal first time pregnancies usually did. But there wasn’t anything normal about this pregnancy. According to her calculations, Kat was only about seven months pregnant. But she appeared to be a full term pregnant woman. She wondered if that would be the same for her and LarIS.
Those on the Colony had more extreme mutations and might affect the type of pregnancy they would have with a person from Earth. What about LarIS’s telepathic abilities? It was inherited from his father so would that mean their child would be telepathic? These were things they should discuss before they decide to start a family. Crap, she had them married with kids already. The man hasn’t said he wanted a mating ceremony or anything. They would have to talk about that too when he came back.
He would come back. That was the only way she could look at it. Because if she thought about how much danger he was in and that he could die—she would break down into tears. She needed to be strong for herself and him.
It was good to have this distraction though. Twenty minutes later a much more calmer SydEL was allowed back into the birthing room. The rest sat in the waiting room for hours before news finally came. A new Prime was born. The first Katieran/Earth baby born was a boy. They named him KitEL.
Happy tears trailed down Kat’s face as she held her son in her arms. “I can’t believe how perfect he is.”
Syd sat on the bed beside her. He reached out a hand to gently touch his young’s head. How could someone so little have such a strong hold on his heart. He would do anything to protect KitEL and Kat. They were all he had ever dreamed of.
“We will have a naming ceremony as soon as possible. It will be the biggest ceremony that Katiera has ever seen.”
Kat smiled. “Not only is he a Prime, but he is absolute proof that our two planets species can breed successfully.”
Syd leaned down and kissed his son’s soft forehead. “You will be a symbol of hope for all of Katiera that our people will live on. I love you. I love both of you.” Syd then kissed Kat’s lips gently.
“I love you too, Syd.” Kat finally knew what it was like to have a real family.
*****
“Commander, wait for my orders to fire,” LarIS yelled out.
“On standby, sir.”
LarIS wasn’t sure this wou
ld work from this distance, but he had to give it a try. He sent his mind back out into space searching for a Morin transport. When he finally hit one, it felt like an impact of jumping from a tall boulder onto the hard ground. It was jolting, but he locked onto someone.
LarIS looked out of the male’s eyes to see his surroundings. He was in the docking bay of the Morin transport with a lieutenant preparing to get into a warship. He needed to be with someone else that would be remaining on the ship. He pushed himself out of the male’s mind and kept going, deeper and deeper into the ship.
He drifted from one mind to the next until he finally reached the command center. Ah there you are. LarIS entered the mind of the commander of the ship. Let’s see what we can do. He needed to act quickly because he could feel sweat rolling down on his body. His mind was also feeling fatigue. LarIS pushed all of that aside so he could focus on his task.
'It’s time you learn what it means to have fear, Morin,' he whispered in the male’s mind. LarIS laughed when the male tried to look around him to see who spoke. 'You should pull away from the rest. Your Leader is leading you to a path of destruction.'
“Who said that?” the Commander demanded. Everyone looked at him as if he had lost his mind.
'You have lost your mind. You are tired of this war. So tired. You should fire all weapons at the other two Morin ships and make them listen to you,' LarIS told him.
“No!” the Morin yelled, grasping his head.
“Sir, are you okay?” A lieutenant approached the Morin leader with fear in his eyes.
“Can’t you hear him?” the Commander asked.
“Hear who, sir?”
The male fought with him over the control of his body. LarIS put all his energy into the takeover. He began to feel the Morin’s arms, legs, hands, and feet. He was fully submerged into the other male. He reached for the controls and launched everything they had at the other Morin ships. The other lieutenants came at him and knocked him down to the ground. LarIS’s mind was knocked out of the body. He hoped it was the distraction that they needed.
LarIS was yanked back into his own body so hard he actually fell backwards onto his backside. He was completely wiped out. The Commander came over and helped him into a chair. He looked at the viewing screen. The three Morins transports were still standing but one had been badly damaged by the shots that LarIS was able to get off. The warships were now engaged in battle. He noticed the transport from Earth was taking some big hits.
“Get coverage to the transport from Earth!” LarIS yelled out. Even though feeling the tiredness seeping in on him, he pushed out once again with his mind to check on what was happening on the other ships.
He could hear Commander AshOR yelling out to his men to get between the Earth transport and the Morins. LarIS watched on the viewing screen as the ship maneuvered into place. Commander AshOR's ship immediately started to take on the brunt of the fire while one of the Katieran transports followed behind the Earth transport escorting them to safety. The other two Katieran transports joined in the battle.
LarIS moved his mind from AshOR's ship to Commander TylOR's and heard him tell his men they were to move in behind the Morin transports. The Kiljorn transport then moved into position behind the Morin transports and started firing. On the Kiljorn transport TylOR continued to yell out commands to his crew. “Come up on the other side. We need to put our ship in between the Morin transports and separate them from one another!”
Since Commander TylOR had his ship at task, LarIS moved to the Commander KydEL and quickly pulled back to his own mind. Commander KydEL’s intenseness to the fight was more than what he thought his mind could take right now. He focused back in to watch from the viewing screen.
For a moment LarIS considered destroying the wormholes altogether. It would keep Earth safe and take something from the Morins that they really wanted. But he couldn’t make that decision on his own. He would also be sentencing Earth to a sure death because their planet was no longer able to adequately sustain life.
Though the Morins were outnumbered, they fought twice as hard and twice as ruthless. They didn’t follow any code of conduct for war. They were vicious predators. These were the creatures that dared hurt his Lola. He wanted to see them all wiped out for that. However, he was not the kind of man to seek vengeance.
LarIS got back to his feet and slowly paced, watching the fighting on the viewing screen. He noticed that AshOR’s ship was moving toward the Morins instead of holding his position. This left the wormhole vulnerable if a ship got past them.
“Get me Commander AshOR!”
“He’s on the line, sir!”
“Commander AshOR! What are you doing?” LarIS demanded.
“I think I can push them back away from the wormhole,” AshOR responded.
“What you are going to do is get your ship damaged and defenseless! Move away from the Morin's transports and hold your position!”
LarIS’s response was a huge bright light and his entire ship shook. He grabbed onto the back of his seat. It was an explosion that shook the entire ship, possibly the galaxy. What in Kitana? “What is happening, lieutenant?”
“Waiting for the readings to come back up, sir. Standby.”
LarIS felt time was standing still as he was waiting for their computer systems to come back on line. He pretty much knew what was happening but he had to wait with the rest of his crew before he could act. There was so much debris but which ship was it from?
“Sir, one of the transports blew up.”
“Which one, Lieutenant?” his voice rose with anger and frustration.
“I still cannot determine that yet.”
“Where are the other ships? Are they still here?”
“The debris has caused an electronic interference. We will have to wait a little longer for it to clear and dissipate before we know.”
“By then we could be under full attack.” LarIS closed his eyes and reached out with his mind. There were remnants thoughts of the dead screaming out. It made him waver on his feet trying to catch hold of his seat to steady himself. He had to pull himself back completely. Too much pain and screaming. He would go insane trying to filter through all of that.
“Sir, we are getting readings. The ship that was destroyed was a Morin transport.”
LarIS felt a relief, but it was short lived. “What about the other Morin transports?”
There was a long pause. LarIS felt something drop in the pit of his stomach. “Lieutenant!”
“Sir, it appears the other Morin ships may have gone through one of the wormholes.”
“Which wormhole?” He suspected the answer and dreaded the confirmation.
“The center one, the one leading to the Earth’s Galaxy.”
Oh Kitana! This was not good.
“Can someone tell me what has happened to our other transport?” LarIS demanded.
“It is there, sir. They do not have communications up yet.”
LarIS ran a hand through his red hair. “What of the third Morin transport?”
“It has fled the area, sir.”
“So we have one destroyed Morin ship, one that has fled but is on this side of the wormhole, and then one that has gone through the wormhole?”
The Commander nodded his head. “Our warships are destroying as many Morin warships as possible but there are a great number of them that have fled in different directions. Do we need to follow them?”
“No. Pull back our warriors. There is only one Morin transport for them to go to. We might be able to track one of the Morin warships to its location. Get me Prime Commander KydEL, Commander TylOR, and Commander AshOR on a secure line.”
“Yes, sir.”
It took a few minutes to get everyone on the line, but there were decisions that needed to be made and quickly. He felt a little shaky having left his body to travel large distance not once but twice. He longed to connect with Lola. She always gave him peace. His true bond mate settled him in ways that no one else could. He
wanted to finish this and get back to her.
“Sir, I have them on the line.”
LarIS looked up at the large viewing screen. It broke off into three views one of each of the males. AshOR’s connection looked a little fuzzy. His ship took a lot of damage.
“There are two Morin transports left. One here and one that went through the wormhole. How much time do we have before they reach Earth?”
“About four weeks,” Prime Commander KydEL answered.
“We need to go after them immediately. Keep them from getting any closer. I volunteer to go,” AshOR piped up.
No one would disagree with that. But there were damaged transports that needed to be replaced first. “We will go back to Katiera and make the decision on who should go. The damaged transports cannot go without repairs.”
“We are wasting time!” AshOR raised his voice.
“Twenty-four hours will not make a difference especially when the Morins still do not have the coordinates to Earth!” LarIS yelled back. He was losing his control. Something that he rarely ever did. People’s thoughts started to rush at him. He needed to find a quiet place.
“We will meet on Katiera to make plans,” Prime Commander KydEL agreed. TylOR said something to his brother, which started the two of them yelling at each other.
“End transmission,” LarIS ordered as he left the command center. His head felt like it was going to explode.
He walked down the corridor wobbling a bit and headed for the observatory. He entered the sanctuary and started to feel a little better. He rested a bit but when he left for the shuttle, he could barely stand up straight. What in Kitana?
*****
The Morin Leader smiled. “Well done. We are on our way to Earth at last. Any word from our other two ships?”
“Commander Zurk reports that transport 1101 has been destroyed.”
“What?”
“The explosion as we managed to get inside the wormhole was the transport,” the lieutenant told him.
“Katieran scumbags! They will regret the day they went against the Morin Nation. We will find this Earth and rebuild our numbers. Then we will go back and show those cretins what it is to suffer.”